“I make no apology for the fact that our newspapers are regarded as the voice of Middle England by many, and if others feel we are a thorn in the Government’s flesh, then so be it. That our sales continue to grow is an affirmation that we get it right more often than we get it wrong.”
Murdoch MacLennan, Managing Director, Associated Newspapers, United Kingdom
“People are born in the local paper; they get married here and will die here. The local paper is where one finds a car, a home and where people sell their bicycle or used pram. A local newspaper without classified ads is a much poorer paper.”
Alf Hildrum, CEO, A-pressen, Norway
“A publication riddled with negativism will never attract as much advertising as a publication that celebrates life. Commerce shuns a disturbed environment.”
Pradeep Guha, President, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, publishers of The Times of India
“It’s not simply about format. What we really need is newspapers that are more adventurously edited and better designed.”
Ally Palmer, Director, Palmer Watson, Scotland
“The average newspaper spends less than 2 per cent of its revenues marketing itself. Our rivals in other media spend 400 per cent more. Companies who advertise in our pages spend even more than that. It’s wrong to say growth can’t be had - it’s just that in many cases newspapers have never tried."
Earl Wilkinson, Executive Director, International Newspaper Marketing Association, United States
"Quality journalism is the most important element. It’s how you hold people’s attention."
Brian Storm, Vice President, Corbis, United States
"When a plane crashes in a far off place, they no longer ask, ’do you the picture’, but ’when can we get it?’"
Jean-François Le Mounier, Head of Photo Department, Agence France Presse
"Many of the strongest images this year have been taken by amateurs. This is also part of the digital revolution."
"What’s wrong with the profession we are in when the professionals take pictures of staged images and the amateurs are the ones that get under the skin."
Fred Richin, Director, PixelPress, USA
"That’s why Al-Jazeera has been successful. We’ve looked at the Arab world and given them credit."
Maher Abdallah, head of International Affairs, Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar
"Never confuse different perspectives with incompetence. Let’s not just assume that because it’s different, it’s wrong."
Ian Ritchie, Vice President for Global Business, Associated Press, USA
"Promotions do not bring long-term happiness. The only way to increase circulation is through the product - that is the newspaper itself - and through the editorial team."
Hanzade Dogan, CEO, Milliyet, Turkey
"We have to show the reader what is under the surface. Our responsibility is to show the readers what they don’t see on TV."
"Words go directly to the brain. Pictures go directly to the stomach."
Per Folkver, Picture Editor, Politiken, Denmark
"The problem is, the media and agencies are more aware of the technology than of the photojournalism. Editors seem to give priority to immediateness, and less to the time-consuming work."
For me this was not a spot-news story but something more important that had to be explained in a longer way. I was shipping film as fast as I could but my agency said the pictures lacked tension. Everyone from the top on down, including my agency, just wanted the violence."
Stanley Greene, Photoreporter, Agence VU, France and USA, on trying to shoot a photo essay in Iraq that showed the war’s impact on local people
"It is an error to squeeze the history of the Arab press to a boom in TV. It was well before the birth of Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and other satellite networks that the power of the written newspaper word had an enormous role in shaping up the course of events."
Gebran Tueni, Editor & Publisher, An-Nahar, Lebanon
“Newspapers can and do attract younger readers.But it is becoming ever more difficult to retain them as they get older. All the research in the UK, and in other mature markets, suggests that youth is a peak time for newspaper reading.
Murdoch MacLennan, Managing Director, Associated Newspapers
“The newspaper is a live spirit. We don’t just open doors to the readers, we fling open the doors and call them to come in.”
Marcelo Rech, editor, Zero Hora, Brazil
“We think we’ve created a habit forming connection between coffee and the morning paper, but search is even more pervasive. Search is to the Web what turning on a light is to entering a room,."
Melinda Gipson, Electronic Media Director, Newspaper Association of America, on the competition from web search engines for classified advertising
“The powerful are wary of us because we cast light on their corruption.”
Jose Rubén Zamora, President and Editor, El Periódico, Guatemala
"It is popular, quick, modern, based on pictures, it surprises readers with ideas, it informs explicity about the topic, it describes events and social phenomena in a simple and clear way, it is independent and friendly towards readers and it helps them solve everyday problems,"
"Tabloids prove that a newspaper can stay in close contact with their readers, can speak in their name and even help them with their problems. They show that it is possible to win and maintain readers who previously did not read newspapers at all or did not read them regularly."
Grzegorz Jankowski, Editor, Fakt, Poland, describing modern tabloid newspapers
"Being careful, taking a deep breath, working sources and following leads and thinking things through until a clearer picture emerges is the stock-in-trade of newspapers in this breathless new media world, and I believe this role will be honored and supported by our readers for many years to come."
Donald Graham, Chairman & CEO, Washington Post Company,USA
"What is the purpose of our newspaper? It is to give our readers an education. "We have to give them confirmation of their values in life.This is very controversial. Journalists want to do the very opposite -- they want to challenge the reader. Our newspaper is conservative and our journalists are anything but."
Niels Lunde, Editor in Chief, Berlingske Tidende, Denmark
"A newspaper is the only product whose shape and size is dictated by the producer and not the consumer."
Simon Kelner, Chief Editor, The Independent, United Kingdom, on offering a broadsheet and a tabloid version of the paper.
"The breeding grounds of terrorism lie, and have always lain, for the most part in those countries which have eliminated or severely restrict the free flow of information, ideas and debate. Hatred and the violence it engenders grow best in the shadows, away from the bright spotlight of open scrutiny. And that is why aid and development programmes and the foreign policy of democratic nations must forego the benefits of short term political expedience and military alliances and demand and invest in the establishment of free media."
Seok Hyun Hong, President, World Association of Newspapers
"I love journalism. I always serve the truth and I want freedom of speech to be celebrated around the world. I will do my best to be worthy of your great trust."
Jailed journalist Ruslan Sharipov, winner of the 2004 Golden Pen of Freedom, Uzbekistan, in a statement read at the Congress.
“We did not have a brilliant record on press freedom until a few years ago. Now we believe in informing individuals in a transparent manner will create a democracy."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey
"Information is valuable. But it is only valuable when it is personally relevant. Otherwise it is only data."
Anssi Vanjoki, Vice President, Nokia Group, Finland
"I am all in favour of consolidating the administrative structure, transport, paper, printing, networks," he says. "But if you are going to consolidate newsrooms, I think it would be a mistake."
Juan Luis Cebrian, CEO, El Pais and Grupo PRISA, Spain
"20th century journalism is one-way. Professional reporters write, and readers read. But we created a two-way journalism. Readers are no longer passive. Readers can be a reporter anytime he or she wants. The main concept of OhmyNews is, ’every citizen is a reporter.’ Journalists aren’t some exotic species, they’re everyone who has news stories and shares them with others."
Yeon-Ho Oh, Founder and CEO, Ohmy News, Korea
"In the past 75 years newspapers have stared down the advent of radio, television, news magazines, the internet, computer games, and a flood of niche publishing competitors. All of which at some stage or another were going to put us out of business. However, each time, newspapers have redefined themselves and re-defended their turf."
"I put it to you today that the future health of the newspaper industry is not just about the content. This great challenge that our readers are presenting us with is about newspapers as a total consumer package -- something that we as publishers have not really had to face up to before."
Brendan Hopkins, CEO, APN News & Media, Australia and New Zealand
"The most striking historical conclusion from our century of journalism is that great businesses-those that endure and thrive in tempestuous times-have remarkably constant missions. The same is true of great publications."
Karen House, Publisher, Wall Street Journal, USA
"Arab press is free to publish any news except news about the country they are in."
Daoud Kuttab, Founder of AmmanNet, Jordan
"Which Arab reader is satisfied with the news they read? The answer is, none of them,"
Said Essoulami, Director of the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa
"Why do they think the press is so dangerous? Why do governments think it is important to restrict the press? Why do they make us an enemy? Why don’t they make us partners -- partners against corruption, partners against administrative ineffeciency."
Walid Al-Saqqaf, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Yemen Times
“The music for my ring tone is ‘Back to the 80s’ because I normally have it on when I am working with newspaper people just to make a point.”
Torry Pedersen - managing editor, VG, Multimedia, Norway
